Hello, I bought this Comet a few months ago, and finally got the title and registration taken care of. It fires right up and runs well. It has the 200ci inline six, and factory air. The air does not blow cold, though. Body: It has pretty extensive hail damage and it looks like alot of Bondo. There is some rust all the way through the right rear quarter panel, but the rest looks pretty good. Interior: -I had to just cut out all of the headliner, it had shrunk and the seams popped, allowing it to fall in -The dash pad is cracked, but I've read the great how-to guide for repairing it and putting on a new cap. I need to order one of those replacement caps and the headliner. -The seats are OK, but I will probably remove the rear seat as I shall never have anybody back there. WOuld like to put in bucket seats eventually as well. -The door arm rests are cracked and need to be replaced My first big purchase for it will be some new tires. My conundrum there is that I eventually want to put in a V8, which will necessitate a larger rear end and five lug wheels. I believe I have the stock original wheels on there now. Questions: -So if I get new tires for these wheels, it is probably unlikely that they will fit whatever five lug wheels I choose, correct? -I have heard that you can pop out a hail dent with a can of that air duster, by holding it upside down and blowing the really cold air on the dent. Is this true? Anyways, sorry for the rambling post. My goal for the car is to get it to a good daily driver status so I can put fewer miles on my truck. And to have a fun little sports car. Thanks for reading, Jonathan
Always good to see another 72 Comet. Looks like a good starting point. Any 40 year old car is going to have some issues. If you are serious about using this as a daily driver, the first order of business in my book is a swap to front disc brakes. That will at least put you in the same ballpark as more modern cars that you will share the road with. If you make the car quicker, drum brakes get scarier really fast. Very good tech info on this site for this. So, with that conversion, 5 bolt wheels on the front gets easy. For a rear axle, if you want to stick with old school wheels, I would swap in one that is perhaps 1.5 wider than the stock axle. As these cars come, the rear tire is a bit snug to the spring and it limits how much tire you can fit in there. An addl 3/4" on each side helps fix that. Granada or 69 Falcon are two that come to mind if sticking with an 8 inch, and they have the spring perches already set. If looking toward modern wheels, you can go wider on the rear axle and avoid spacers. Again, study what has been posted here for a ton of ideas. Looking forward to seeing how you progress.
Thank you for your advice. Disk brakes shall be a priority. I will read the how-to for the front axle conversion. -I do intend to use it as an about-town daily driver. I won't get on the highway with it. I found a guy on local craigslist with a complete 8.8 rear end from a 2002 Mustang with disk brakes. He wants $250. From my initial research, it looks like this should be a pretty direct rear end replacement? And the least amount of work to get where I want to be (5 lug, disk brakes, beefier gears) for the rear wheels? (he is also selling a 1990 5.0 HO engine out of a running mustang as well, and wants 600 for it and the rear end together. I'm not sure I want to jump in to the engine just yet. Is that a good deal? I could keep it in storage until I am ready) Some description about my capabilities might help. I can weld and fab stuff like brackets, once I know what I need to make, pretty well. My weak spot is car mechanics in general (and that is a pretty broad weak spot). I'd like to learn, but don't have time to enroll in a class at the local community college. So working on the Comet is kind of how I intend to learn. Thank you. And thank you for the encouragement, mav1970.
In the past, I always could tack 2 things together but never actually welded until a few years ago when I bought my welder and practiced and practiced This site is the best place to learn about mechanics and the car that you own is the perfect car to learn on - called the "School Of Hard Knocks"
I agree, this is a really well done forum with alot of knowledge to offer As far as welding goes, I took a night class at C-C to learn oxy-acetylene gas welding. And I swept shop for a time one summer in order to get some teaching from the shop guys, learning to stick and MIG. Now I have access to a TIG welder as well, and really enjoy that. I'm not certified in anything, though. I can run a lathe pretty well, and can avoid hurting myself on a mill at least. I wish my high school had offered an automotive shop class. So, in the spirit of just jumping in to it, I talked the guy down a bit and I'll be buying that 1990 5.0 HO engine and 8.8 rear end w/disk brakes. - I think I will have to cut off the coil spring related hardware to work with the Comet leaf springs. And weld on new leaf spring perches. Converting to coil springs would be a pretty big job I think. - I think the 2000 Mustang 8.8 rear end w/ disk brakes is 61 5/8" wide, considerably more than the 1972 Comet (is 57.5" correct?), and more than CaptainComet's suggestion of 1.5" over. ---So, I will need to shorten the rear end. I will read up on how to do that, it may be a job that is over my head. Maybe my other option is to get wheels with positive offset? Thank y'all, Jonathan
That's probably what my car would look like if it hadn't lived in a museum most of it's life..... Looks like a nice project.....
nice car... what is your time line for this project? to me...cutting tubes and positioning spring plate pinion angle...on an 8.8 would be more work than the end result for your car..."200 6 cyl. daily driver". find yourself a 5 lug 8"... Mav/Comet or Granada ...they have been behind V8s for a long time... you seem to know how to weld, you will just have to learn...where to weld... JMO
Hello, Eventually I will be putting a v8 into this car. I've got a good deal on a 1990 5.0HO engine. I agree, it would be easier on me and my wallet to find a car that is closer to what I want in the end, but I won't learn as much. Also, I don't see similar cars come up for sale around here too often. I do know where a Maverick is, but I haven't seen a for sale sign on it. Oh, I know where there is a Maverick out of Mexico sitting for sale, but it is in pretty poor shape... though it could be a good donor car? I can't remember if it had four or five lug hubs. Since I will need to buy wheels no matter what direction I go, can I just account for the wider rear end by getting wheels with positive back spacing? And you are spot on, I've got to figure out where to weld! Frank, I've read your thread before! You've got a great car going. Thanks
Update Hello, I got some work done on my Comet today. I cut the spring mounts off of my 8.8 rear. It is a 2.79 ratio (<3 anyways), without traction control, so I'll probably get a new gear set before I install it. Need to order some spring perches and figure out what UJoint hardware I will need. I also removed my front and rear seats today, and removed the carpeting and that greasy black matting stuff. Found rust in my floor panels No holes, though. Hopefully I can treat it and not need to do any floor panel patch work. Time to read up on that POR15 stuff, and what prep work it needs. >>I would like to re-use my carpeting, it has no tears but some stains. If I just hose it down and then shampoo it, will I have problems with it warping? Thanks for looking, Jonathan
Yes, I'd say your passenger side cowl is leaking. Your driver side floorboards are good, most likely due to the fact you have a factory A/C car which doesn't have the "hole" on the driver side cowl.
Carpet is not much.. Once you get to it you might want a new one. One thing about these cars is once you open the can you find alot of worms.. I'll be watching .. Good luck with her
It rains very little out here, but this is a fix - one way or another - that I will tackle soon. I think gray carpet would look pretty slick - there is alot of blue otherwise, and I think I would like to paint the car a dark silver or gunmetal when I do the exterior. So I'll look around.
